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Eph. 4:4; 1:22-23; 5:23; 1 Cor. 12:12-13, 15, 21; Eph. 3:8, 19; Col. 3:11; John 6:48, 57, 63
I. Christ being the Head
II. We being the members of the Body of Christ
III. The Body receiving from the Head
IV. The fullness (expression) of Him who fills all in all
V. The fullness (expression) of God
[The organism of the Triune God is a Body (Eph. 4:4). The very abstract and mysterious God has an organism. God is invisible, yet He has a visible organism, the Body of Christ. The church as the Body of Christ is for His fullness, His expression. The definition of the church as the fullness of Christ may be illustrated by a cup that is filled with water to the extent that it overflows with water. The water within the cup is seen and expressed when it overflows from the cup. The overflow of the water is the fullness of the water, and the fullness of the water is the expression of the water that is inside the cup. John 1:16 says, “For of His fullness we all received, and grace upon grace.’’ We received of the fullness of the incarnated Christ who came as grace and truth (v. 17). The Word became flesh, and He was full of grace and truth (v. 14). The fullness of grace and truth is the fullness of the incarnated Christ. To fill a cup with water until it overflows is to have “water upon water.’’ The Lord Jesus was full of grace, grace upon grace. Of His fullness we all have received, grace upon grace. The fullness is the expression of the riches. A person’s body is his fullness, his expression. A husky American man who has enjoyed so much of the rich foodstuffs of America, the riches of America, may be considered as the fullness of America, the expression of America. The church as the Body of Christ is the expression, the fullness, of Christ.]
The church is the Body of Christ. Jesus Christ, being the embodiment of the Triune God, is rich in all that God is. He is also rich in what He has gone through and accomplished. He is wonderful and marvelous. Such a universally great Person needs an equally wonderful and marvelous Body to contain and express Him. After He went through His process and ascended to heaven, He became the Head of the church, His Body. The church therefore is universally great having the Head on the throne in the heaven and the Body on the earth expressing the Head as His fullness.
[Christ is the Head of the Body. In Ephesians 5:23 Paul says, “Christ is Head of the church, being Himself the Savior of the Body.’’ The Savior is a matter of love, whereas the Head is a matter of authority. We love Christ as our Savior, but we must also be subject to Him as our Head.
As the Head of the church, the Body, Christ is joined to the Body. Just as in one’s physical body the head and the body are one, so Christ, the Head, and the church, His Body, are joined and therefore are one. The Body is one with the Head in the divine life and in the divine Spirit.
All that Christ has accomplished, obtained, and attained as the Head is not only for the Body but also to the Body (Eph. 1:22-23). This means that what the Head has gained now belongs to the Body, for it is transmitted to the Body. The Body, therefore, comes into existence from the transmission of the Head. Whatever Christ has passed through, obtained, and attained is now being transmitted into the Body.]
A body must have members. Who are the members of the Body of Christ? We are! We, the God-chosen, Christ-redeemed, and Spirit-regenerated people are the members of the Body. We do not join the Body by signing up. We become members by being saved and baptized into the Body. First Corinthians 12:13 says, “For also in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body.’’ Therefore, the Body is organic, of life; it is not formed organizationally.
Like the human body, not one member is hired and not one member can be fired. Every member is of life. The Body of Christ is the same. We were not hired nor can we be fired. None of us were admitted into the Body, so we can not remove anyone from the Body. This is wonderful. We can be assured that we will remain in the Body of Christ forever.
We may have different functions in the Body, yet we are still one Body. The foot cannot say, “Because I am not a hand, I am not of the Body’’ (1 Cor. 12:15). Neither can the head say to the foot, “I have no need of you’’ (1 Cor. 12:21). Because we are organically in the Body we cannot be discharged. We are in the Body forever to enjoy all the riches of the Head.
Ephesians 1:22b says, “And (God) gave Him (Christ) to be Head over all things to the church.’’ Christ is the Head of the church to direct the church’s every move; and in order for the church to express Christ as His Body, the church must be connected to Christ all the time to receive all that Christ is. The phrase “to the church’’ implies a continuous transmission from Christ the Head to the church His Body. All His divine riches are ours to enjoy continually. All that He is, all that He has, all that He has accomplished, and all that He has obtained and attained is being transmitted into all the members all the time. We need to open to Him to receive all these divine riches all day long.
When you get up in the morning, you may pray, “O Lord Jesus, You are my Head. I want to enjoy all that you are. Flow into me.’’ As you are praying, the Spirit will flow from the Head into you to revive your spirit. Then you should pray-read the verses for the day. The Head on the throne will be your rich supply for you to live Him out that day. God will be expressed in your manner of living. You will be energized to preach the gospel to save sinners that they may become new members of the Body. You and your newly saved ones, may prophesy and testify to exhibit Christ in the church meetings to build up the Body of Christ. The most enjoyable and fulfilling way to live our human life and our Christian life is to live as a member of the Body of Christ.
[The church as the Body of Christ is the fullness of Him who fills all in all. Ephesians 1:23 says that the church “is His Body, the fullness of the One who fills all in all.’’ Grammatically, “the fullness’’ is in apposition to “His Body.’’ This indicates that the Body is the fullness and the fullness is the Body. The Body of Christ is His fullness. The fullness issues from the enjoyment of the riches of Christ (Eph. 3:8). Through the enjoyment of Christ’s riches, we become His fullness to express Him.
This fullness is the fullness of the One who fills all in all. Christ, who is the infinite God without limitation, is so great that He fills all things in all things. Such a great Christ needs the Body to be His fullness for His complete expression.]
[Many Christians do not understand what the word fullness means in Eph. 1:23 and 3:19. They think the word fullness means riches. Fullness does not mean the riches. In Ephesians the unsearchable riches of Christ are mentioned in 3:8. We must differentiate between the riches and the fullness. The United States has supermarkets full of the riches of America. The riches of America are its products, but the fullness of America is a husky American. This fullness is the expression.
The fullness comes out of the riches. However, if we do not eat and digest the riches, we may have them without having the fullness. The riches issue in the fullness through eating and digesting. If we do not eat and digest the riches, we shall remain skinny and short. In like manner, the church is not only the Body of Christ, but also the fullness, the expression, which issues from the enjoyment of the riches of Christ.
This fullness is the expression of the very One, the universal Christ, who fills all in all. Colossians 3:11 says that Christ is all and in all. All, both times in this verse, refers to people. In Ephesians 1:23, however, the “all in all’’ which Christ fills is something universal. Christ is unlimited (Eph. 1:23; 3:18). The dimensions of the universe are actually the dimensions of Christ. How long is the length? How high is the height? How deep is the depth? How broad is the breadth? No one can tell. The dimensions of Christ in Ephesians 3:18 are unsearchable and unlimited. These dimensions are the description of Christ.
Christ fills all in all, and we the church, by enjoying His riches, eventually become His fullness. If I had only a head, without a body, I would have no fullness. This fullness is my expression. We must realize that the church as the Body of Christ is Christ’s fullness as His expression.]
[In Ephesians 3:19 the King James Version says we are “filled with all the fullness of God.’’ The preposition with literally means “unto, resulting in.’’ We are filled unto all the fullness of God. We are filled, resulting in an expression of God. Fullness here means expression. Paul said he prayed that the Father would strengthen us with power through His Spirit into the inner man that Christ might make His home in our hearts, and that we might know Christ’s dimensions — the breadth, length, height, and depth — that we might be filled unto, resulting in, the fullness of God, the expression of God (Eph. 3:14-19).
The entire book of Ephesians deals with the church. It is the house or household of God (2:19), it is the Body of Christ (1:23), and it is the fullness as the expression of Christ and of God (1:23; 3:19). According to chapter three, the church can be such an expression, not only of Christ but also of God, when Christ makes His home in our hearts that we may experience His unsearchable riches. While we are enjoying Him in such a way, we are being filled with all the riches of Christ, resulting in an expression of God.
The church today should be such an expression, issuing out of the rich enjoyment of the unsearchable riches of Christ. We are burdened for the situation among Christians. Where is there an expression of God? I hope that among us there will be such an expression. We all need to pray for ourselves as Paul did for us in Ephesians 3. We should bow our knees to the Father that He may strengthen us into our inner man that Christ may make His home in our hearts, fully settling down in every avenue, every part, of our inner being. Then we may enjoy His love, and we may touch and possess His dimensions. We will be filled with Him unto the fullness of God, the expression of God. This is not just an assembly or a called-out congregation of Christians. This is a group of people fully possessed by Christ and enjoying Christ to the uttermost, being saturated by Him and filled with Him to such an extent that they become an expression of God.
Whatever we eat we express. When I was young, I would sometimes visit my grandparents who lived at the seashore. They often ate fish, whereas our family hardly ever ate fish. Whenever I went to my grandparents’ home, I smelled nothing but fish. One day I asked my mother why everyone there smelled like fish. My mother replied, “Do you not know that they eat fish every day? That is why they smell like fish!’’ What we eat we become and we express.
When we eat Jesus, we “smell of’’ Him (2 Cor. 2:15), we express Him, and we become Him. What is the church? The church is the expression of the very Christ whom we eat. All the fullness of the Godhead is embodied in this Christ, and this very Christ is our bread of life (John 6:48). He said, “He who eats Me shall also live because of Me’’ (John 6:57). When we eat Christ, we live by Him. This Christ is the embodiment of the Triune God; when we eat Christ, we eat the Triune God. Our Savior, Jesus Christ, the embodiment of the Triune God, is our daily manna, our daily food. We eat Him, so we express Him. This expression is the fullness of the One who fills all in all. Eventually this is the fullness of the Triune God. We can be such an expression by eating Jesus. Let Him saturate your entire being. Let Him settle in every room, every avenue, and every corner of your inner being — in your mind, your emotion, your will, your conscience, your soul, and your spirit; in your loving, your decisions, your intention, and your motive. Whatever you do must be filled with Christ.
To eat Jesus is simply to take Him in and let Him be assimilated into our being. To eat means to receive food into our being; to eat Jesus means to receive Him into our being. The issue of our eating Him is the fullness of the One who fills all in all and also of the very Triune God. This fullness is the church. The church is not only an assembly, nor is it only the house of God, the family of God; it is also the Body, an organism of this living One, which eventually becomes His fullness and the fullness of the Triune God.]
Do you know how to eat Jesus? He went through the process of incarnation, human living, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension to be the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b). According to John 6, He went through the process to be embodied in the Word. That is why He said in John 6:63, “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words which I have spoken unto you are spirit and are life.’’ The word is spirit and life. The Spirit is His person. The word has His essence. Whenever we come to the word with our spirit, we may touch the Spirit. When we mix our reading of the Word with calling and praying, we touch the Spirit. This is the way to eat Jesus. Ephesians 6:17-18a confirms this. It says, “And receive the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit which is the word of God, By means of all prayer and petition, praying at every time in spirit.’’ By praying in spirit, we take in the Spirit which is the word of God. This is the way to eat Jesus. You can eat Jesus by yourself and with your companions. This is the way for us to take in His riches to become His fullness. Right now, practice pray-reading the two verses quoted in this paragraph.
